3.22.06
A Balloon Band Is Born               

Balloon Bass has finally found a soul mate in the six strings of Henry Bermudez. I first saw Henry play solo electric guitar at the open mic at Mr. T’s Bowl and was blown away my his skill, style and energy – he sounds like Jeff Buckely covering Stevie Ray Vaughn in Spanish. Even though I was a little scared, I asked him if he wanted to get together and jam. He was really into it, as he was intrigued by the single-string-rubber-blues-freak-out. But it took us a year of phone tag to finally plug in, zone out and jam. But the second we started playing it was a genuine, intuitive click – we knew there was a seed with some serious potential. About a month later I scored a big ol bass amp from the 70’s ($50 on craigslist) and we started calling ourselves Unpopable. I would bring in a songs I wrote for solo balloon bass and Henry would add new parts, and the arrangements become very amoeba-like, shifting shape and texture each time we played them, until they finally coagulated into some sort of new life form. Tina’s Thick Thighs in particular was reborn into a free jazz - rock anthem. We are currently playing shows around Los Angeles and recording demos, (which you can hear at www.unpopable.com) and plan to record an album this summer. Henry (who in the daytime is responsible for making sure 200 families stay fed) also plays in like 4 or 5 other bands, as well as recording his solo music with his trio. We are doing a tour of the US East Coast in the 3rd week of June. If you have suggestions of where to play, can hook us up with a gig, or would like us to crash at your place, please drop us a line.  -A  




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